Refugees - Assigning asylum seekers

Switzerland is embracing innovation in its response to the global refugee crisis. Beginning this fall, the Swiss State Secretariat for Migration will test a new, data-driven method for assigning asylum seekers to cantons across the country. Asylum seekers in the pilot program will be assessed by an algorithm designed to maximize their chances of finding a job. The algorithm will allow officials to send individuals to the canton that best fits their profile, rather than allocate them randomly, as under the current system. The program will then follow these asylum seekers over the next several years, comparing their employment rates to those of others who entered the country at the same time. It will include two thousand people, half placed in cantons with the guidance of the algorithm and half placed randomly. The algorithm’s recommendations take into account constraints such as the limited space in a canton, and placement officials make the final decision in each case. The placement algorithm was developed by the Immigration Policy Lab (IPL), which has branches at Stanford University and ETH Zurich, and an affiliated researcher from Dartmouth College. IPL researchers aimed to give countries around the world a tool to improve refugee integration that could easily be implemented, at low cost and without overhauling their existing systems. Their first step: harnessing many years of underused data on refugees and their outcomes.